Mindful Parenting for ADHD Children: Requires More Than Consistent Structure

The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.
- Peggy O'Mara
Brief About Dr. Bertin - Coalescent, Mindful Perspectives:

Dr. Bertin is an articulate developmental pediatrician in Pleasantville NY, and author of two important books - Mindful Parenting for ADHD and The Family ADHD Solution - which integrate mindfulness into the rest of evidence-based ADHD care. He also teaches as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at New York Medical College, on the faculty of the Windward Teacher Training Institute, and is on the editorial advisory board of Common Sense Media. His interesting, comprehensive blog is also available through Huffington Post, Mindful.org and Psychology Today .

Parenting Note:

External structural consistency devoid of unbalanced affect helps on day to day issues; and is best coupled with an internal, balanced, mindful parenting process improves long-term developmental outcomes  from within. Mindful parenting works  for parents at every level - far beyond ADHD.

Dr Bertin's ADHD Mindful Parenting - His Personal Overview  

"First, I think the fact that ADHD is so overwhelming to parents is not discussed enough, and is often exacerbated by common perceptions about ADHD to begin with.   I'd be fortunate enough to be introduced to mindfulness many years ago, and when the research developed to prove it works, I realized I should start using with families. Mindful awareness is a process that can dramatically improve parenting skills.

A mindful process not only makes parents feel better, which is important enough, but really, taking care of ADHD requires lots of effort, resilience, flexible problem solving and compassion (for themselves, for starters) for parents.  ADHD causes stress in and of itself, which makes effort, internal resilience and all the rest that much harder to maintain.  If you want to be able to do everything you feel you should do to manage ADHD – even just stick to a behavioral plan – it's going to be much easier if you practice mindfulness because your own resilience will be that much higher.

Mindful parenting practice supports both parent and child.

And then from there, mindful practice supports almost all of ADHD care.  From a research point of you, the exact interventions built through mindfulness effectively impact the worse challenges for those with ADHD.  Then there's stress, behavioral management, changing habit, dealing compassionately with judgment (yours, the communities, grandma's ...), communication, and more. All of these contextual challenges can meaningfully improve with mindful intentionality.

Mindfulness doesn't fix ADHD on its own, but it supports the rest of what we need to do."

Dr Bertin's Books:

* Mindful Parenting for ADHD - A Guide to Cultivating Calm, Reducing Stress and Helping Children Thrive
* The Family ADHD Solution - A Scientific Approach to Maximizing Your Child's Attention and Minimizing Parental Stress

Dr Bertin's Mindful Article And Website/Blog:

* In Mindful Magazine
* http://developmentaldoctor.com/

Dr Bertin's Book Recommendations:

* Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, by Patricia Begley
* The Mindful Brain,